Nail-puller.



PATBNTED NOV. 3, 1903.

B. H. NORRIS.

NAIL FULLER.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 26, 1903.

N0 MODEL.

Ji naw Patented November 3, 1903.

PATENT OFFICE.

ERNEST H. NORRIS, OF CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA.

NAIL-FULLER.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 743,318, dated November 3, 1903.

Application filed June 26, 1903. Serial No. 163,220. (No model.)

' To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ERNEST I-I. NORRIS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Cedar Rapids, in the county of Linn and State of Iowa, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Nail-Pullers, of which the following is a specification.

The object of this invention is to improve the construction of nail-pullers of a familiar type so as to adapt them to pull nails with little bending and from placessuch, for example, as barrels-where the ordinary nailpuller fails to grip and hold the nails.

The device is very simple and clearly appears froin the description and claims following, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a view of my improved nailpuller as in use. Fig. 2 is a fragmentary View showing the heel or fulcrum of the same.

The device in the main is similar to a nail-' puller in very general use, comprising a jaw A, integral with its shank B,a striking handlebar 0, sliding on said shank, and a jaw D, pivoted to the other jaw at E and having an extended foot F, which serves as a fulcrum in pulling the nails gripped by said jaws. As usually made this foot is a little curved near the joint, but terminates in a practically straight flat surface to bear on the board from which the nail is drawn. When the surface on which the foot rests is a fiat one, the action of the tool is fairly satisfactory, though there is always more or less of a tendency to slip off the nail, especially as it is drawn out to some distance. This tendency is so great when the surface is a curved onea barrel hoop, for instance-that the tool does not work at all satisfactorily, and barrels which would otherwise be useful and salable after emptying are rendered valueless by the breaking of heads or hoops in opening. My invention is designed to overcome these objections and produce a nail-puller that will seize and hold a nail driven in almost any surface and pull it out with but little bending.

The improvement consists simply in bonding the foot F downwardly at some little distance from its outer end and sharpening the end F, so that it will not slip. The holding part may be in the nature of tangs F with a somewhat broad surface at their bases, so that when used on soft wood or elsewhere the surface is only pricked by the tangs and not out, as it would be by an angle or edge. As thus constructed the foot has a point of support which does not change from the time of gripping the nail until it is pulled entirely out, and this notwithstanding curvature or other deviation from a plane surface. On the other hand, in the case of the nail-puller in common use when an attempt is made to pull a nail from a curved body, such as a barrel or something smaller than a barrel, before the jaws can grip the nail, so as to hold it securely, the motion of the handle as-in pulling has literally rolled the tool to a position in which the jaws do not engage the nail at all. In other words, the very movement of the tool to pull the nail turns the jaws to a position in which they are necessarily stripped off it.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

As a new article of manufacture, a nailpuller having a pair of hinged, nail-gripping jaws, with a hand-lever attached to one of them, the other jaw having a foot extending backwardly and with a sharpened end projecting downwardly in practically the same direction as the nail to be pulled, whereby the device is adapted to draw nails from a rounded or inclined surface, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I affrx my signature in presence of two witnesses.

ERNEST I-I. NORRIS.

Witnesses:

J. M. ST. JOHN, F. J. KUBICEK. 

